An important consideration for many individuals is protecting localized, relatively vulnerable regions of their bodies from external forces likely to be experienced in their particular environments. These individuals include the elderly, others who suffer from degenerative tissue and bone structure changes, still others who are recovering from an illness or injury that has left a region of their bodies in a vulnerable state, and athletes who because of the activity in which they engage are vulnerable to injury to a particular region of their bodies. Often, persons with pre-existing medical conditions have one or more body regions that, if subjected to external force that would not affect a reasonably healthy person, could cause serious injury to an already vulnerable part of their bodies.
Illustrative of the types of persons often in need of localized body region protection are those who, because of advanced age or past injury, are extremely prone to injury around the hip joint area. The hip joint is a ball-and-socket joint formed by the reception of the ball-shaped head of the upper part of the femur into a cup-shaped cavity in the pelvis. Particularly vulnerable is the greater trochanter which protrudes outwardly from the femur at the joint. This region is not protected by muscle of the type that surrounds the other regions of the hip. Hip joint injuries are especially common with the elderly and others who suffer from weakened bones, e.g., osteoporosis, those who suffer from neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, or those who require daily medication doses which can cause them to be confused and make them susceptible to slips, tripping and falls.
Others frequently concerned about localized body region protection are those who, because of an illness or injury, are fitted with a partially or fully implanted medical device. For example, individuals with severe bone fractures often have the fractures secured by one or more implanted pins that, because of their orientation and design, extend close to or press against the inner surface of the skin. Pressure against this area even when sitting or sleeping can cause the skin to break down, resulting in ulceration. Bone securing pins of this type are commonly used in treating fractures of the hip joint.
Other partially or fully implanted medical devices requiring protection include hemodialysis connectors, medication diffusers, pacemakers, and the like. An external force directed to the region of the body in which such a medical device is fitted can disrupt the mounting of the device, causing it to malfunction or injure the skin or other body parts surrounding the device.
Certain individuals also experience considerable discomfort and pain simply when reclining or sleeping in a position which causes pressure to be applied to the body region which is to be protected. This can be particularly troublesome for paraplegics or other individuals who, due to their age or the nature of their condition, are confined to bed for extended periods of time. Such individuals are often afflicted with decubitus and other ulcers that result from prolonged body weight pressure on certain body regions and which, when left unprotected, can be extremely difficult to treat and very slow to heal.
To date, various appliances have been suggested to protect localized body portions from external forces. One such appliance is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,641,641, to the inventor of the invention of this application, for a protective appliance for the hip joint area. This appliance comprises a flexible pad adhesively secured to the wearer and a rigid shield removably secured to the pad. The shield is configured to absorb and disperse external forces to which it is exposed so as to prevent the underlying vulnerable body region from suffering their effects. This appliance is typically worn on the skin in a vertical orientation over the region of the greater trochanter of the hip joint area to protect that area against injury due to external forces.
One major limitation of many prior adhesively secured protective appliances, including the invention disclosed in the above-mentioned U.S. Patent, is that they tend to fall off the wearer with time. Simple body movements cause sections of the adhesively secured pad to be pulled away from the skin. Though the sections may re-adhere to the body in later movements, the bonding strength of the adhesive is substantially weakened. Consequently, over time, the adhesive securing the appliance becomes so weak that it can no longer hold the appliance to the body. As a result, the appliance falls off the wearer and usually has to be replaced. Pad separations of this type occur over time even with bedridden wearers whose body movements while turning in bed are relatively slight.
The short lifetimes of protective appliances resulting from repetitive pad separations of this type create various problems for their wearers. If the appliance wearer is a person suffering from a medical condition requiring long-term protection of a body region, he or she may be forced to spend considerable, possibly burdensome, sums of money frequently replacing the appliance. Furthermore, when the wearer is incapable of personally applying the appliance to his or her own skin, there are additional expenses associated with caregivers being required continually to check the wearer to verify that the appliance is in place, and when it is not, to replace it with a new one. This latter situation, and the substantial expense and inconvenience associated with it arise frequently with paraplegic, comatose and geriatric patients whose medical condition necessitates long-term wearing of the appliances.
Moreover, prior protective appliances of this type are not well suited for active individuals whose need is limited to protection for one small region of their bodies, such as the hip joint area, that normally undergoes frequent movement such as during walking and the like. Individuals wearing such appliances may find that their normal day-to-day body movements cause the appliances to separate from their bodies in short order. If such individuals do not carry replacements with them during the desired activity, they are often forced to forego protection altogether.
An improved protective body appliance, which has a much longer wear time compared to the one disclosed in the above-referenced patent, is disclosed by this inventor in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 201,170 entitled "Protective Body Appliance". This improved appliance comprises a rigid shield secured to a flexible, compressible pad which contains an outer section and an inner section. The inner section further contains two opposite end wings which are spaced away from the outer section. In use, the entire inner section is uniformly secured to the body region to be protected. The shield is thus permitted to rock back and forth to a limited degree, i.e., within the space between the inner and outer sections, while the adhesive surface of the inner section remains uniformly in contact with the skin of the wearer.
In other words, when this appliance is worn by a user, body movements and external forces which act on the rigid shield and cause it to rock one way or the other do not tend to lift the inner pad section from the skin of the wearer. The wings instead permit such rocking while the inner section remains firmly in contact with the skin. As a result, the likelihood that the adhesive bond will break is substantially reduced and the wear time of the appliance is significantly increased.
Though this improved appliance has an extended usable lifetime, it is somewhat expensive to manufacture. As noted, the pad portion of the appliance is composed of two sections, i.e., an inner section and an outer section, which are formed either by partially slicing through the ends of an one-piece pad or by securing two separate pad sections together at their centers with adhesive or the like. In addition, securing means such as snap rivets, tabs, or pockets must be provided for holding the shield relative to the pad portion. These factors add to the cost of manufacturing the appliance.